Angel Yin of the United States poses with the trophy after winning the tournament following the final round of the Honda LPGA Thailand 2025 at Siam Country Club on February 23, 2025 in Chon Buri, Thailand. (Photo by Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images)
The Honda LPGA Thailand opens the LPGA’s Asian Swing with Jeeno Thitikul chasing history on home soil, Angel Yin defending the impossible, and a field ready to burn down the leaderboard.
The air in Pattaya sits on you like a warm, wet blanket. By the time the sun clears the palms at Siam Country Club, the thermometer has already passed 90, and the galleries — which numbered 55,000 over four days last year — are staking out positions along the ropes with the kind of energy that only materializes when a hometown hero has a real shot at winning.
This is the Honda LPGA Thailand, running February 19–22 at the Siam Country Club Old Course in Pattaya, Chonburi. Now in its 19th edition, the Honda LPGA Thailand kicks off the LPGA’s annual Asian Swing with a $1.8 million purse, no cut, and a cast of characters that makes this one of the most compelling fields of the young season.
The Field: Wide Open and Dangerous
Nelly Korda is not here. Let that sentence breathe for a second.
The world’s most dominant player over the past two-plus years has opted to skip the opening stretch of the Asian Swing, and her absence reshapes the entire conversation. Korda opened 2026 by winning the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions — her 12th LPGA title — and walked away from Thailand with 500 Race to CME Globe points already banked. Logical decision. But for everyone else in a 72-player field, her name missing from the tee sheet is oxygen.
Which brings us to Jeeno Thitikul.
The world No. 1 is playing at the Honda LPGA Thailand for the sixth time and, somehow, has never won here. She’s finished third twice (2023, 2025), second once (2021), and has watched this particular trophy leave the building without her more times than she’d prefer to discuss. But this week is different, and she knows it.
“I would say I already think this is my year,” Jeeno said in her pre-tournament press conference, measured and confident. “To play in front of them as the world No. 1 — I think it’s already the answer.”
She’s been working through a legitimate technical issue: her iron shaping drifted toward an over-fade late in 2025, and a December wrist injury compressed her prep window. She spent three to four weeks before arriving in Pattaya working hard on swing sequencing with her coach. Whether that work shows up on a course where precision iron play is currency will define her week.
Miyu Yamashita enters as the Rolex Rankings No. 4 and the reigning Rookie of the Year — two facts that would have seemed implausible before she went out and won the AIG Women’s Open and the Maybank Championship in the same rookie season. This is her first time at the Honda LPGA Thailand, and she’s leaning hard into her short-game strengths while building lower-body stability through an intense offseason training block. She’s not intimidated by the occasion. She should be one of your picks.
Ruoning Yin (No. 7) arrives quietly dangerous, and Lydia Ko (No. 6) remains one of the most consistent closers in the women’s game. Lottie Woad, ranked No. 8 in the world in just her first full professional season, is another name to track — she noted after her practice round that Siam’s tiered green complexes reward players who hit specific sections of the putting surface, not just players who hit it close.
Defending Champion: Angel Yin and the Weight of -28
What Angel Yin did at the Honda LPGA Thailand in 2025 was surreal. She shot 260 (-28), broke the 72-hole tournament scoring record, made a closing birdie on 18 to hold off Akie Iwai, and did all of it with a caddie she’d met three minutes before her first tee time after her regular looper fell ill.
She walked into her 2026 pre-tournament press conference and admitted, with a disarming frankness, that her game isn’t where it was twelve months ago.
“I think my game was better last year than it is now,” she said. “Kind of struggling right now.”
That kind of honesty is rare and, in its way, refreshing. Yin has been on Tour since 2017, and at 28 she’s old enough to know the difference between a slump and a collapse. She spoke about wanting to be more consistent — she cites Jeeno’s almost mechanical reliability as the standard she’s chasing — and about the chaos of last year’s win putting her in a headspace she’s still processing.
She’s ranked No. 13 in the world. She knows this course fits her eye. Do not write her off.
Siam Country Club: A Birdie Machine With Teeth
The Old Course at Siam Country Club opened in 1969, designed by Ichizuke Izumi and renovated in 2007 by Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley. It plays 6,649 yards at par 72 — not long by modern standards — and it has historically rewarded the player who can generate birdies in clusters and survive the treachery of its multi-tiered greens.
This year, the nines have been swapped. Jeeno dismissed the change with a wave — “I don’t think it matters” — noting it was done to improve spectator flow. But for players making their Siam debut, like Yamashita, the routing change adds one more variable to process.
The Aon Risk Reward hole this week is the par-5 15th, which places a premium on distance off the tee. Only one in ten players historically reaches in two, gaining 0.4 strokes on the field when they do. A tree splits the fairway and punishes a sloppy lay-up; water and bunkers guard the green for the bombers. It is, in short, a hole that separates.
The player who wins the Honda LPGA Thailand typically combines two things: controlled aggression off the tee and an elite short game from the tight lies around these greens. Miyu Yamashita’s self-described style — “short play is my thing” — maps almost perfectly onto that profile.
One to Watch: Danielle Kang
Danielle Kang walked into this week on a sponsor invitation, which tells you where her ranking sits. It does not tell you what she’s capable of when a golf course clicks for her.
Kang has two LPGA wins and 17 career top-10s. She’s battled through health challenges that would have ended most careers. She’s the kind of player who, when her ball-striking is even moderately sharp, can ride short-game brilliance into contention on a course that rewards feel around the greens.
There’s also something to be said for players with no external pressure — no world ranking points to protect, no expectations from media or bookmakers. Kang could easily go out Thursday and shoot 65 before anyone starts paying attention.
Also worth monitoring: Chanoknan Angurasaranee, the young Thai player here on a sponsor invitation, playing in front of a crowd that will be passionately in her corner. And Akie Iwai, who shot 61 in the final round of the 2025 edition — the lowest single-round score in tournament history — and returns as a full LPGA Tour member ranked No. 25 in the world. She was the runner-up last year. She will not forget that.
How to Watch the Honda LPGA Thailand (US Times)
This one requires a commitment. Tee times in Thailand land on Golf Channel in the late-night and early-morning hours on the East Coast — ideal for West Coast night owls, a legitimate alarm-clock event for the East.
All coverage on Golf Channel. Streaming available on golfchannel.com and the NBC Sports app.
| Round | Date | Golf Channel (EST) |
|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | Wednesday, Feb. 18 | 10:00 PM – 3:00 AM |
| Round 2 | Thursday, Feb. 19 | 10:00 PM – 3:00 AM |
| Round 3 | Friday, Feb. 20 | 10:30 PM – 3:30 AM |
| Round 4 | Saturday, Feb. 21 | 10:30 PM – 3:30 AM |
East Coast fans: Set the DVR or lean into the late-night live experience — the Thai crowds make for genuinely electric television. West Coast fans: This is prime 7–midnight viewing. Make a night of it.
The Bottom Line
The Honda LPGA Thailand arrives at an interesting inflection point. The best player in the world has never won this tournament. The defending champion has openly acknowledged she’s working through a rough patch. A 23-year-old rookie phenom is playing the course for the first time in front of an enormous, enthusiastic crowd. And 55,000 people are expected to show up by Sunday, fueled by the genuine hope that one of their own will lift the trophy.
Jeeno Thitikul has been building toward this moment since her grandfather first walked her through these fairways as an eight-year-old to watch Michelle Wie and Ai Miyazato play. She became world No. 1. She gave back to her community. Now she just needs one more thing.
Pattaya is waiting.
The Honda LPGA Thailand runs February 19–22 at Siam Country Club Old Course in Pattaya, Thailand. Coverage on Golf Channel.
